Corpe and Bloor

On the rural islands of Corpe and Bloor the annual Fight Week is about to begin in which champions are chosen and lives changed forever. The Fight is between a champion from Corpe and a champion from Bloor. Girls are chosen as prizes for the man who is crowned the winner of the Fight. Faith Rathbone is the unwilling prize of Corpe and the life she had always known is tipped upside down in the form of Alec McFadden, the champion of Bloor. She must decide if she can begin to hope for a life on Bloor but leave her family behind. But her fate is not her own.

1. Corpe

A long, long way away from any place anyone can remember, are two islands. Oh for sure, they aren’t very big, but what they hold on these islands is far more precious than anything that could be bartered on the mainland. The two islands in question go by the name of Corpe and Bloor. Now, it is Corpe’s people who work the land, for the fields are perfect for agriculture and horticulture; their soil is rich and fertile. There are only farmers, fishermen and butchers on Corpe – though even the butchers and fishermen own farms – for they had never seen any reason to treat anyone differently. They believed in equality, that every man, woman and child should get the same experiences and training, but what they did with it was up to them. There were no poor people on Corpe, no rich people, just farmers and their wives, ploughing the fields and tending to be rather happy with their large families. Their appearances suit the farmers, for they are all red-cheeked and have worn skin which has been wrinkled and worked away at by the manual labour and the sun. There is a very limited supply of electricity supplied to Corpe, and the people ration it out reasonably. They are peaceful people, who generally get on with one another and they keep the land going. The men and woman who lived on Corpe are big, broad and know how to live off nothing if it came to it. They think nothing of a pampered lifestyle, and live only so that their large families can be comfortable and keep the farms in the family name. Marginally, the males are favourites, and the land will all go to them once their parents have passed. Though the women are not treated like invalids, and they too can work and run a farm. There are those that say that the women are the reason the whole island doesn’t disappear into the sea. Well, normally it doesn’t . . .